


Breaks

by ab2fsycho



Series: Hold My Tea and Watch This [31]
Category: Guardians of Childhood - William Joyce, Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: M/M, and pitch is mad at me again, but dammit, i can see stars and noises, i have done a thing, i may have broke the jack again, running on nothing but three cups of tea here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-29
Updated: 2013-08-29
Packaged: 2017-12-25 01:04:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/946813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ab2fsycho/pseuds/ab2fsycho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The group advances on Pillan in hopes of catching him by surprise, but things don't always go as planned.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Breaks

**Author's Note:**

> At this point, if there are any typos I'm going to go back and fix them once the series is over. I will be reposting this thing in chapters, and it will have a title. Tips on titles would be nice. Can't very well call it Hold My Tea and Watch This when the only person consuming tea is myself.

Pitch awoke from a series of pleasant dreams to the even more pleasant feeling of Jack Frost’s cold body against his. Purring to himself, he buried his nose in the Guardian’s hair and inhaled the scent of winter. He’d stopped counting the times he’d told himself that he could never grow tired of waking up to this. His arms tightened around the boy as he positioned himself closer to Jack’s chill.

“Pitch, you’re crushing me,” Jack mumbled tiredly. Pitch’s head was still so groggy from sleep that he hadn’t realized he was almost completely on top of Jack, who was lying on his stomach with his arms framing his face as pillows. Pitch smiled at the boy’s sleeping position of choice. Well, he doubted he’d chosen this position. More than likely, Pitch had inadvertently forced him into it.

He probably shouldn’t be smiling at how vulnerable Jack was to him at the moment. He probably shouldn’t be thinking about it. But the burn on his leg felt great and he had his precious Jack with him. And Jack trusted him and he trusted Jack. The notion was almost foreign to him.

And the skin behind Jack’s ear looked so delicious after such an excellent nap.

Pitch would forever blame his actions on his being only half-awake at the time. For now, he just wanted one small sampling of Jack’s flesh.



Jack came fully awake at the feeling of Pitch’s tongue behind one of his ears. He shivered at first, biting his lip to quell the moan that was ready to escape his lips. When he was done gasping from the contact, he turned his head to glare at the Nightmare King. Jack whispered, “Really?”

“What?” Pitch said absently.

“You do realize we’re not alone, don’t you?” Jack struggled to keep his voice even and quiet, but now Pitch was shifting on top of him, positioning his groin suggestively against Jack’s rump. “Could you calm down a bit?”

“We’re not alone?” Pitch asked.

Jack heard the playfulness in the Boogeyman’s voice and sighed. Gazing out at the sleeping Guardians, he whispered back, “No, we’re not alone.”

“Well,” Pitch muttered before his hand snuck over Jack’s mouth, “you better keep quiet then.”

Jack mouthed against his hand, “I’m gonna kill you,” but Pitch paid little attention. If anything, it made the Boogeyman hum with excitement as he thrust against Jack’s clothed ass. Jack unleashed an unabashed groan at the sensation, but soon felt his cheeks redden as he glanced over at the others. This was most definitely not how he wanted them to see him this early in the morning. Jack gasped again as Pitch’s other hand reached down to cup his growing hardness. He mouthed the Nightmare King’s name against his palm, but this only resulted in a short chuckle and a tightening grip on his member. Pitch thrust again and Jack’s eyes rolled into the back of his head at the thought of Pitch shoving himself into him. He groaned without even trying to muffle it this time, reacting enthusiastically to Pitch’s palm on his crotch. He moaned again as Pitch squeezed his—.

“Whatever the two of you are doing, don’t do it. No one wants to see that,” Sera said from a good distance above them.

Both Jack and Pitch went completely stiff at that. Jack was certain that his cheeks had never been redder as they pulled apart and assessed their sleeping area. Jack was glad that they were partially covered by a bush of some sort, considering how intimate Pitch had been getting with him. At that thought, he turned and glared at Pitch. Pitch looked more distraught over the fact that his daughter had been the one to say something. Anyone else and the Nightmare King would’ve simply shrugged off the look Jack was giving him.

“What are you two rabbits or something?” Bunny muttered from the side. A soft chuckle sounded from the canopy. “Don’t even—.”

“You said it. You have only yourself to blame.”

Despite the good humor, Jack’s face only got redder as he pulled his hood up and tucked himself further into the underbrush, out of sight of the others. He glared out at the now awakening Guardians, ignoring the Boogeyman at his side. For once, Pitch was just as embarrassed as he was.

And to think the morning had started off so well.



Tooth and Bunny checked their injuries before they decided whether they were comfortable moving or not. Though her wing bore what may very well be permanent scars, the twit could still fly. That was enough to brighten her morning. The kangaroo’s gash had healed considerably, and merely stung after its treatment. Pitch’s burn had, of course, almost disappeared due to the rest he’d been forced to take. The morning would’ve been amazing had he not been interrupted. The very thought of it made him almost ill again. Anyone else. Had anyone else called him and Jack out, he would’ve been fine. But no. His luck was only so good.

Mother Nature laid out her idea for what was to happen while reapplying medicine to everyone’s bigger wounds just in case. “Our best chance at defeating him will be catching him by surprise. If we can’t do that, the Guardians could distract him long enough for me to open up a chasm under him.” She sighed before continuing with, “I’ll need you,” she looked at Pitch, “to use your shadows to keep him in the chasm long enough for me to close it on him. You,” she gestured to Jack, “can keep using your ice to mute his flames. You saved our arses with that last time.”

“He won’t survive this, will he?” the twit asked. Sera shook her head. Pitch could see the sadness in his daughter, though she concealed it well. One never truly lost feeling for anything that had come close to being a family member, even when it threatened that person. Despite everything, he ached for her.

“What happens to us? As soon as the ground starts splitting, that is?” the kangaroo asked, cutting through their thoughts.

“How would you and your tunnels fair getting everyone to safety? Will a quake affect them?”

“What about flying?” North asked.

“I’d go with that, but not everyone can fly and it would be easier to open up a tunnel and slide to safety. Does that seem reasonable, Bunny?” Seraphina asked again.

“It shouldn’t be a problem. It would take a lot to collapse my tunnels.” His nose twitched and his ears stood on alert. “It sounds like you’ll be left behind.”

“If everything goes accordingly, I won’t. There’s always a chance that things won’t work out in my favor.” She put away her materials. “Rest assured that no element can truly kill me.”

“But Pillan can,” Pitch pointed out.

She closed her eyes forlornly, not making eye contact. “I don’t think he can bring himself to do it.”

“You’re putting a lot of weight on what you think he can’t do,” he argued.

“Well, what choice do I have? We can’t let him go free.” With that, the conversation ended.

After check-ups, they got back on their feet again. The group moved in a divided formation through the woods towards where Mother Nature thought Pillan had landed. They moved in pairs for the most part: the bird with the Cossack, the rabbit with Jack, Pitch with Seraphina, and Sanderson on his own. The gap between the Sandman and the others wasn’t quite as large, but he reassured them that he could handle trekking through the rainforest on his own. He had dreamsand after all. It still puzzled them as to how his sand had not put Pillan to sleep during the flight. Seraphina guessed that he’d built up immunity to it over time just as he’d built up an insane amount of pain tolerance.

Seraphina and Pitch were silent for most of the walk. The silence between them was uncomfortable at best, but Pitch had a chance to actually speak to her with no one really listening in on them for the first time since she’d given him her advice. The trouble was how to begin to speak to his daughter. It still stunned him that they were working together after so many years.

It seemed only yesterday that she was pulling him from the wreckage of the Great War. The notion didn’t seem completely unrealistic. What were a few centuries to an immortal?

“Thank you,” he started simply. He felt her tense up at the offer.

“For what?” she asked hesitantly.

“Your words. You . . . were right. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to trust.”

She didn’t look at him or respond for a moment, but he could feel her curiosity mounting in place of the tension. “I still can’t believe you listened.”

“Did you expect me to lose my temper?” He found himself being pinned by her gimlet stare. “Well, I did.”

“Didn’t seem to work out too unfavorably.”

“The bottom-line is that you were right. I didn’t realize it at the time, but your advice was exactly what I needed.”

There was a long pause as he felt her confusion stirring, mixing with the awkwardness of his admittance. She broke the silence with, “I’ve never heard you say I was right twice in one day.”

“You and I haven’t exactly been communicating. You’d likely be just as surprised at the things I’ve said this past year.”

“He’s really mellowed you out, hasn’t he?” Her wariness was abating, which made Pitch relax slightly. The fact that she was speaking with him nearly had him smiling.

However, he refuted, “I wouldn’t say that. If anything, I’ve been more violent since he entered the picture.”

“Which is probably why you’re here,” she observed. 

He nodded. Another pause interceded their conversation, leaving room for tension to rekindle. Pitch, more than ever, did not want that. He also didn’t want to admit that he’d been wrong, but he’d had to do that a lot lately. What was one more apology? It could save someone. “I am sorry.”

“Okay, what are you up to?” Seraphina eyed him suspiciously, folding her arms as they continued walking.

“What, an apology warrants suspicion? Should I be up to something?”

“I don’t know, should you?”

“Seraphina—.”

“Sera.”

He sighed. “Sera. I truly am sorry. I shouldn’t have hurt you so. I should’ve trusted you. Moreover, I should’ve told you these things much, much sooner. I knew how to find you. I was foolish for not seeking you out, and I was foolish to think that you would come back on your own. You got your hardheadedness honest, that’s for sure.” He half expected her to interrupt him, but she didn’t. She just watched with a guarded stare. So much like him. “You’ve done nothing to deserve my mistrust.” He looked up, reminded of something suddenly. “Save for shoot an arrow at my head.”

“Wasn’t it you who said that if I wanted to hit something, I would’ve? I was merely proving your point.”

He smirked at that. “Still, that was close.” He exhaled through his nose, coming up with what to say next. “You can go on hating me. I’ll understand. But despite what I said long ago, you have never stopped being my daughter. Even if you leave after this is through, you will continue to be my daughter.”

Their footfalls seemed louder once he finished, the tension remaining steady as Sera’s confusion was replaced by frustration. That seemed right. She had about the same reaction to these sorts of situations as he did. Neither was ever willing to give up a grudge. Not without just cause. The silence continued as they proceeded, and Pitch began to feel strangely satisfied for having spoken up. It was odd, this trusting business. About as odd as the concept of love.

He got distracted by the thought. Someone loved him. Jack loved him. He hadn’t realized he was smiling until Sera was giving him yet another suspicious look. He set his thoughts aside as he wiped the smile from his face. “Dear Manny, what has that boy done to you?”

“I think you’re exaggerating.”

“You never smiled.” She reminisced, stopping him before he interrupted. “Not like that, anyway. You smiled, but only when something . . . not pleasant came to your mind.”

“You made me smile. That’s pleasant enough, now.”

He caught her smirk before she tried to hide it. “Someone might think you know something you shouldn’t, you walking around smiling like that.”

Her suspiciousness caught his attention again. He squinted at her, then said, “Is there something I don’t know that I should?”

“No.” She spoke entirely too quickly, making him squint again. He watched her longer, waiting for one of her tells to give her away. It wasn’t long before she started raking her hand through her hair. 

“You’re hiding something.”

“You’re reading too much into my distrust.” Her voice was even. No other tells showed. Just the one had tipped him off.

“Is there something I should be suspecting you of?”

“No! Stop acting like my father!” she snapped, raking her hand through her tangled black mane again. It was then that he caught a glimpse of a particular shade of pink that her orchids did not match. He continued staring, trying to figure out what he’d seen when she turned and glared at him. His brow furrowed and he looked ahead. When she thought she’d successfully deterred his attention, she continued walking. The tension in her limbs was high again, but eventually her guard was down.

He took his chance and used the shadows to pull her hair back. She jumped, both coming to a stop as she moved to hide what it was Pitch had sought. But it was too late. She shouted a series of curses before it fully sunk in that there was an aster growing at the nape of her neck. A sour taste reached his tongue as a pit formed in his stomach. He had about the same reaction to her fear as he did to Jack’s, and she was rampant with fear due to his discovery. Though it had sunk in what he had found, he still felt completely numb. “Nothing to hide, indeed.”

“What the hell—?”

“Why would you have that?”

“What do you care?”

His rage began mounting as he watched her try to play it off. “That is the signature of the rabbit. Why is it in your hair?”

She folded her arms defensively. “You’re going to get mad because I’m friends with a Guardian? Really?”

“Friends don’t give each other gifts like—.”

“I still have this!” she retorted, pointing to the black dagger on her calf.

“You’re my child! That is different! Why did he—?”

“We were friends—.”

“—give you that?”

“—and you would’ve killed him.”

They were shouting, now. “Friends don’t give things like that! I won’t kill him now—!”

“Why do I not believe—?”

“He’ll survive if you tell me—.”

“You don’t wanna—!”

“—why you have that!”

“What in Manny’s name is going on here?” Pitch hadn’t realized the Guardians had approached them until the Cossack had spoken. Usually, he only had eyes for one Guardian. At the moment, that particular Guardian was not the subject of his attention.

Instead he glared angrily at the rabbit, his shout fueled by his rage. “Explain yourself!”

“Aw crikee . . .,” the kangaroo’s ears flattened against his head as he held his paws up defensively. The guilt on his face was enough to ignite what remained of Pitch’s anger, and he could feel the shadows starting to roil around him.

“This isn’t necessary—,” Sera began.

“Yes it is!” His eyes never left the rabbit, who started backing up as Pitch advanced on him. “I don’t care if you are the last of your kind! If you’ve tried to repopulate with me daughter, you’ll be extinct!”

“Pitch! Calm it down!” Jack set his staff off to the side, stepping between the Boogeyman and his prey. “Now is not a good ti—umf!”

Jack was cut off by Pitch’s hand grabbing the boy’s face and shoving him so that Jack was standing behind him. “You—.”

“STOP!” Sera shouted, taking Jack’s place between him and his target. “Listen to Jack! Now is not the time for this. We can have this out later.”

Just then, an unearthly screech cut through their conversation. As the group reoriented themselves, Pitch looked up to see the plague spirits swooping in on them. He could hear the monkey men leaping through the forest towards them.

Good. Something he can take his anger out on.



“Next time that happens, mate,” Bunny shouted to Jack as he pulled his boomerangs free and the winter spirit ran for his staff, “hit me over the head and kill me. It’ll be quicker than what he has planned.”

Jack had no time to nod or even acknowledge Bunny’s request. He immediately started flinging bolts at the oncoming enemy. He shuddered at the sight of the monkey men, but refused to let them get the better of him before he’d even engaged them in combat. He really didn’t want the taste of blood on his tongue again.

He got a rhythm down, shooting icicles from his crook at the flying targets and leaving sheets of ice where the monkeys would slip on them. As more monkey men appeared, though, he began to feel himself losing control of his fear. His shoulders sagged as he began to doubt his abilities.

Meanwhile, Rin hadn’t said anything. Jack couldn’t even hear his hum.

He glimpsed how the others were doing as he ran through them and leapt onto the wind. Pitch was having entirely too much fun laying waste to his foes. Swords flashed, whips cracked, and Jack was entirely too distracted by his shaking hands to land a perfect blow on the monkey man jumping from a branch onto him. Jack cried out, unable to hold in his panic as he crashed to the ground face first and the air was knocked out of him. His staff left his hand upon impact. The weight of the monkey man on top of him made him hysterical as he tried crawling from beneath the creature. His whole being shook when the beast grabbed his forearms, breathing and making strange noises against his neck. Jack couldn’t even bring himself to scream as he glanced around desperately for his staff. He thought he’d seen it when the beast squeezed his forearms and suddenly Jack was whimpering. He couldn’t keep his eyes open and he couldn’t even think about his staff. There was only the pressure on his arms and the hot breath against his neck as the monkey man pinning him prepared to rip into his neck.

“JACK!” he barely heard Pitch scream as the monkey man was torn off of him and then, in turn, torn apart by the Nightmare King’s shadows. Jack covered his eyes with his now free forearms, unable to watch the bloodshed. When he was certain it was over, he looked up to see Pitch defending him. Locating his staff, he reached for it and tried to get back on his feet again. He was shaking too horribly. He could hardly keep his staff in hand. He was not cut out for warfare. Looking at the others, they seemed out of place in it. But they were handling it.

He wasn’t.

“I can’t do this, Rin,” he muttered. 

He’d never been so relieved to hear Rin’s humming rekindle. He asked almost inaudibly, “Then what are you waiting for?”

“I give you permission, just please—.”

Jack didn’t have time to finish before Rin possessed him for the third time. Rin hadn’t bothered telling him that this was going to be the last. He stared down at the staff in his now paler hands, running a tongue over the now sharp teeth. Running greedy fingers over the wood, he grasped it in both hands and broke the crook over his knee. When the action was complete, he felt Jack’s influence completely disappear as what was left of the blue in the hoodie faded completely to black. Rin’s grin widened as he thought of the winter spirit.

Rin dropped the pieces of the crook and ran headlong into the battle, muttering, “Sweet dreams, Jackie!” You needed the staff. I never did. Silly Jack Frost. What made you think I was ever going to leave without a fight?

**Author's Note:**

> There I go breaking the characters again. Whoops.


End file.
